Prescient, a Colorado-based construction software company, is moving its headquarters to Durham | The Herald Sun

Colorado-based construction software company Prescient is moving its headquarters from the Denver area to Durham, the company announced on Wednesday.

The headquarters move comes as the company opens a 130,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mebane, where it plans to hire more than 200 employees. The company stands to receive $2 million in North Carolina Job Development Investment Grants over 12 years if it meets its hiring goals and invests $18.8 million in the Mebane facility.

The average annual compensation at the Mebane site is $46,544, which is higher than Alamance County’s current average wage of $36,346 per year. In addition to its Mebane employees, the company has around 200 employees at its Colorado manufacturing facility and 100 in Poland at the company’s software development center.

Founded in 2012, Prescient uses design software to create pre-fabricated framing for multistory buildings that it installs on-site into residential structures up to 14 stories tall.

The company’s Durham headquarters will be at 115 N. Duke St., across from Brightleaf Square in the former ReverbNation building. About 60 employees, a mix of executives and engineering, sales and finance positions, will be based there initially.

“One of the primary reasons (we chose downtown Durham) is that we wanted to pick a place that is accessible and where you have a lot of other institutions and universities around you,” Prescient CEO Magued Eldaief said. “We want a place where you can attract young talent – we want to bring in a lot of young people that have the kind of skill sets that we need to really continue growing this company. … Durham is young and hip, and it’s a place where we can attract great talent, because it’s a place where people want to live.”

Eldaief, a former executive at General Electric, recently moved from London to Durham. He said that the company should have room to grow in Durham – adding that if the company keeps growing at its current rate the headcount could be “a whole lot more.”

Revenue has doubled every year at Prescient for the past five years, said Chairman Satyen Patel. The company forecasts $127 million in sales this year.

The Mebane facility has been operating since May and now has 60 employees. Employees there will be able to produce 54 buildings per year at an average size of 100,000 square feet and will service the company’s clients east of the Mississippi River. West Coast manufacturing will still come out of the company’s Colorado facility.

The company’s projects in North Carolina include the 45 Asheland apartments in Asheville and the Pier 33 apartments in Wilmington, with several others under development.

Gov. Roy Cooper, who attended the grand opening in Mebane on Wednesday, said investing in education will be important to ensuring more companies such as Prescient choose North Carolina.

“What we need to do as a state is invest in education and technology,” Cooper said. “What Prescient does – they use technology to make sure construction is cheaper, to make sure it is greener, more affordable, stronger – but they have to have training for their employees. They have to have the best architects and engineers and advanced manufacturers and the people that are ready to do those jobs. It is a signal to us that they as a company want us to continue to invest in education.”